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Bw pressed name plates


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Hi everyone, 

Does anybody know where I might be able to commission a pair of pressed aluminium name plates as used on bw boats in the 90s? I believe radiant has a good example of the thing I'm looking for.

 

Don't worry it's not for any of my boats, it's for my tractor.

 

Thanks!

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I think one of the outfits which do  vintage/classic car number plates should be able to help.   There are usually a few at the shows.............. This year maybe a look on the shelf at your local magazine library ( aka Martins, Menzies, WH Smith etc.) would turn one up.  At least you wont be forced to spend all afternoon in a beer tent.

 

You may have to paint the background yourself, if you don't want Black.

 

N

 

Example:  www.ebay.co.uk/itm/124165088911

Edited by BEngo
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9 hours ago, BEngo said:

I think one of the outfits which do  vintage/classic car number plates should be able to help.   There are usually a few at the shows.............. This year maybe a look on the shelf at your local magazine library ( aka Martins, Menzies, WH Smith etc.) would turn one up.  At least you wont be forced to spend all afternoon in a beer tent.

 

You may have to paint the background yourself, if you don't want Black.

 

N

 

Example:  www.ebay.co.uk/itm/124165088911

Thanks, if they have a different font I'd be interested, the number plate font is very distinctive and the bw plates were very different. But I shall enquire and find out!

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1 minute ago, Rose Narrowboats said:

They were used from the 70s to the present day.

 

I can supply them as per the originals either in the original white over red or the later black over white. CRT are one of our customers for them.

 

Can you do the original 1980/81 British Waterways Board index number plates with the wave logo, white letters on a black background just as they were ?

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Just now, Rose Narrowboats said:

Hi Pete,

 

I'm working on it - mine are getting tired, and as the Index number system was introduced by my Grandfather I feel his former boat should really continue to comply with the relevant byelaw!

 

Best regards,

 

Anthony

Mine were lost donkeys years ago as the owner back them attached them to the sides of the fore end. I have new ones but they are hideous white with black lettering and the CRT 'polo' logo, so they will not be going on once the restoration is complete :captain:

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I too might be interested in original white-on-black plates with wave logo. I do have the ones which BW issued for Belfast when they first came out, but they are very battered and have been extremely badly repainted. While I could strip and repaint, I think there are just too many dents and creases for that to be worthwhile.

Edited by David Mack
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1 hour ago, Rose Narrowboats said:

They were used from the 70s to the present day.

 

I can supply them as per the originals either in the original white over red or the later black over white. CRT are one of our customers for them.

 

Amazing! Wow that didn't take long! 

I will contact you in the week with my order then!

 

Thanks.. s

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When these came out we didn’t want to fix them to the cabin sides and asked Tony Grantham who was then BWB man in charge of this if they could be sign written exactly as the plates but he would not allow it so we fixed them to the front of the engine hole bulkhead. Nothing was ever said and some time later people started painting the numbers on cabin sides and I never heard of anybody having a problem.

Edited by Dav and Pen
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14 hours ago, pete harrison said:

Mine were lost donkeys years ago as the owner back them attached them to the sides of the fore end.

 

56 minutes ago, Dav and Pen said:

When these came out we didn’t want to fix them to the cabin sides and asked Tony Grantham who was then BWB man in charge of this if they could be sign written exactly as the plates but he would not allow it so we fixed them to the front of the engine hole bulkhead. 

I think the reason they were fitted on either side of the fore end of my boat is so that they would get knocked off as like you say owners of 'historic' boats did not want to fit them when they were first issued. Many owners fitted them at either end of the deck beam, and some to the engine room bulkhead or pigeon box, but rarely were the screwed to the cabin of an unconverted boat. When I bought BADSEY and BARNES in 1988 the index number plates were screwed to the deck beam on both boats, and back then the subject of these plates was all still a bit raw. When I returned BADSEY to its wartime livery I painted them over in dark blue so that they did not stand out, and nobody from B.W.B. ever complained.

 

Move on 40 years and these numbers are now accepted, and often lettered onto the cabin somewhere. When I bought my boat a couple of years ago its canal licence had expired as it had been on the Thames for 10 years, allegedly on the Thames Tug Register instead - but that had also expired by a number of years as I found out when trying to claim it at the first lock. When I started working my way through the beaurocracy of getting my boat licenced on the canals I did not want a new six figure index number and pursued the re-instating of its 1980/81 index number. I knew the index number and there was no problem in getting it re-issued, and to my great surprise it came with the automatic entitlement to 'historic' boat discount - so that was something I did not need to pursue and grabbed it with both hands. The quandary now is whether to have the index number lettered on or whether and where to attach the plates :captain:

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2 hours ago, pete harrison said:

The quandary now is whether to have the index number lettered on or whether and where to attach the plates

I was musing on the same regarding Belfast. Don't want them on the back cabin sides. Can't put them on the engine room front bulkhead as the boat is converted. So I guess it's the deck beam. Or live with the current paper version taped inside the windows.

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25 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

Canaltime had their numbers in the windows for years and not attached to the hull/cabin

 

That's where mine have been for the last 18 years, now in a drawer in the boat as I don't need them anymore.

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23 hours ago, David Mack said:

I too might be interested in original white-on-black plates with wave logo. I do have the ones which BW issued for Belfast when they first came out, but they are very battered and have been extremely badly repainted. While I could strip and repaint, I think there are just too many dents and creases for that to be worthwhile.

The dents are called character.  The creases are called laughter lines!

You could mount them on the sides of  a pigeon box, flat on  the roof or a suitable hatch or slide, or even on the back bulkhead  either side of the doors.  They are quite easy to trim to fit

 

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16 hours ago, David Mack said:

I was musing on the same regarding Belfast. Don't want them on the back cabin sides. Can't put them on the engine room front bulkhead as the boat is converted. So I guess it's the deck beam. Or live with the current paper version taped inside the windows.

5years ago we got a stern  written warning from C&RT for not displaying reg. number on our historic. In reply it was pointed out that the number plates were on the deck beam and very visible if one was to look there. Reply from C&RT was that the "rules" require the number to be on the side of the cabin and would we please  comply? The boat name is very prominent on the traditional painted cabin and they must have known the boat's identity (and number)   anyway to be able to write to us! There are 3 other reg. numbers of historical significance painted  on the cabin side, another  modern one would just be confusing?

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3 hours ago, billh said:

5years ago we got a stern  written warning from C&RT for not displaying reg. number on our historic. In reply it was pointed out that the number plates were on the deck beam and very visible if one was to look there. 

So did you ignore the CRT letter ? What can they do if you don't comply ? I'm amazed that someone is wasting CRT's time pursuing this. 

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A few years ago there was a purge on boats not displaying the regestration number, probably at the time that they were introducing the hand held computer boat logging system. I have an end of garden mooring and due to previous vandalism keep the boat completly sheeted over so the number is not visible. I recived a letter to the correct address with the boat name and number on telling me I shoud be displaying the number, in a fit of pique I painted it on the sheets as big as I could make it and then got asked if they could use a photograph of it to encourage others to follow suit.

I am now waiting a letter as replacement sheets have been fitted and I havent got round to putting the number on again yet.

 

I remember when the plates were introduced that many didnt want to screw them to the cabin sides and at a canal society meeting the local moorings/enforcemt officer at the time insisting that they should be fitted as supplied, from the outset people painted them on, no doubt some recieved complaints. Mine are as good as the day they were supplied back in 1985 having never been fitted.

 

Steve

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